Some Kids

I saw something kind of interesting on the subway the other day. I was sitting near the end of the car meant for bicycles, but I don't believe there were any there. I was minding my own business, which is always when things happen to you. When you're getting in other people's business, nobody is and nobody can be getting into yours, but that's immaterial for the moment. Something happened, I saw it and I'll say what it was.

I was reading or some such thing, and I looked up for a moment, as I often to in order to maintain an awareness of my surroundings. That's very important on the subway, because you don't want to be taken advantage of. So I looked up and I saw a couple of kids roughhousing. I guessed that they might be brother and sister, and there they were aggressively grappling in the free space of the bicycle area. It was one of those eyes-widening moments.

It became evident that they were not alone, but were under the care of a guy who I first thought must be their father. He was certainly not making the mistake of getting too hands-on with the kids. It then occurred to me that he might be too young to be their father. Could he be their older brother? That seemed possible. He might be a much older brother or an awfully young father. Either way, it accounted for his lackluster discipline of the children.

I watched the bunch of them get off, with the one in charge (be he sibling or parent) managing to pacify the children after a fashion. I guess they were never really of concern to me, though it seemed they might become so. I wonder what followed that for them. I suspect they have such brawls often. I wouldn't worry about them in general, spirited though they seemed to be. With luck and direction, they might do fine in life, those kids.